Austin Evbakavbokun, the supervising Commissioner of Police for Saturday’sOsun State governorship election, said on Friday that journalists must be accredited by the police before they could cover the election.
Evbakavbokun announced this in Osogbo at a news conference.
The instruction came after the Independent National Electoral Commission had concluded issuance of accreditation tags to news men for the coverage of the exercise.
The Commissioner said: “We have fake police and we have fake journalists.
“Anybody can claim to be a journalist.
“Now, we have female suicide bombers, which we did not have before,” he said.
Evbakavbokun therefore told journalists to collect the cards from the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Folashade Odoro, who, however, said the police accreditation would be ready on Saturday.
According to him, voters must go to the poll only for the purpose of voting and after that they should either go home or stay 300 metres away from the polling station.
The commissioner said highly placed government officials would not be allowed to monitor the election with escorts or guns, adding that the law must be respected.
He said: “We are ready to prevent any act capable of breaching the law and order before, during and after the election.
“We have deployed our men in all the polling units in all the local governments.
“We are fully mobilised at the three senatorial districts of the state being manned by commissioners, deputy commissioners and superintendents of police.
“We also have specialised units, special protection units, dog handlers’ units, all because we want a free and fair election.”
The commissioner, however, said the police had not arrested anybody in connection with the election, stressing that the reported case of interception of a vehicle loaded with ballot papers was a misinformation.
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